14 - Media stereotypes and adaptation

Summary

So far I have examined hypotheses about media coverage of environmental issues with a statistical analysis of stories in The Bulletin. The following account explores the detailed content of news stories. It demonstrates how the media affirm old stereotypes, create new ones, and can take on board new concepts. The focus will be on conservationists as a ‘lunatic fringe’, the encouragement of expressive protest, free enterprise and money-making, growth versus environment, a paradigm shift and sustainable development.

In the early 1970s the environment was barely on the political agenda. Notwith-standing efforts to establish institutional procedures for addressing this issue, there was some scepticism as to whether anything would actually be done. In 1973 The Bulletin reported on the ineffectiveness of the NSW Department of the Environment. It quoted a young graduate who had recently resigned from the department:

Apathy, inertia, inefficiency, incompetence and inactivity were the order of any working day … The department, created 18 months ago because the Liberal Government became aware that the issue of the environment was an attractive political platform, is powerless … And, I was told, I was to be trained in the skilful art of conveying half-truths, telling convincing white and outright lies to the public concerning its activities; in acquiring the gentle art of placating individuals and conservation organisations with grievances and complaints …

(14 April 1973: 21).